Exams/audits

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A festering dispute between Missouri’s State Funeral Board and funeral directors association came to a head in a public conference call today.    The State Board scheduled the meeting in response to  its parent agency (the Division of Professional Registration) blocking the Board’s hiring of an investigator.  The Board held the meeting to discuss what actions…

In our third post on Missouri’s endowed care cemetery audits we look at the request for the cemetery’s legal documents.  The current audit notice  requests copies of the cemetery’s trust agreement, rules and regulations, contract forms, deed forms, brochures and any other materials making an endowed care representation.  In essence, the audit is going to…

When Missouri’s endowed care law was passed in 1994, all cemeteries were required to register with the Office of Endowed Care Cemeteries.  Cemeteries can seek licensing as either an endowed care cemetery or a non-endowed cemetery, or the cemetery could claim it was exempt from Chapter 214 pursuant to the definition of “Cemetery” pursuant to…

In our last post we discussed the need for the Missouri State Board to provide guidance to their financial examiners regarding Section 436.425 and insurance funded contract forms.  In this post we will discuss Section 436.425 and trust or joint account funded contracts.

Subparagraph 9 has created confusion for examiners and sellers.  That section states…

At its April meeting, the Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors discussed the formation of a “Phase 3 Committee” that would provide input for the revision of the Board financial examination handbook.  The Board staff is about half way through the second round of preneed examinations (“Phase 2”), and the Board wants to…

The newest edition of the Missouri Preneed Exam Handbook has some significant problems.  The one we will discuss today is ambiguous instructions regarding the review of preneed contracts.  Paragraph 13 of the Handbook’s scope of financial examination states:

13) Staff shall look at 100% of all active preneed contracts that have been sold since the…

“Nitpicking” was one of the terms frequently used by Missouri funeral directors when referencing their preneed exam exceptions report.  (Other descriptions are not appropriate for print.)  The initial exam guideline provided no guidance to examiners for prioritizing problems found in preneed contracts and records.  It was common to see exception reports with dozens, even hundreds,…